(Disclaimer: Please buy the comic before reading this review available at your local comic shop!) They can also be found by visiting findacomicshop.com or comicshoplocator.com
Preface
Power Rangers Darkest Hour continues. And to continue forward, we can’t go beyond the Grid any longer. We have to shatter it…
The Cover
Cover that speaks volumes about the issue.
Billy hopeless on his knees in the middle of a shattered glass with the rest of his friends are seen through his reflections. Shows him at a desperate place and that his actions will affect everyone around him. Love to see it.
The Story
Billy finds himself talking to an image of Grace, believing it to be a result of his sleep deprivation. He knows that there’s too much at stake and that he doesn’t have time to sleep. He heads to the Bermuda Triangle where he sees that one of the Power Eggs is already starting to crack. Kendall proposes that maybe they could try using her Energem to power the shield, but Billy finds it rather pointless to buy them more time by depowering another Ranger. She tells him her story of her and her Rangers once ending the world, trying to prove to Billy that sometimes you do what you have to do to survive.
Billy tries to relax by visiting Rocky and Adam at Tommy’s house, but the two of them are still feeling the results of Dark Specter’s corruption, being more agitated than ever. So, instead, Billy goes to Promethea to ask a captive Kiya why she was planning on destroying the Power Eggs to shatter the Grid. Since he’s the only one of the original MMPR Rangers who doesn’t remember the events of Shattered Grid, Kiya tells him all about it.
Billy reflects that although the universe had to be rebuilt from the ground up, it did protect pieces of the Grid from becoming infected. Jason tells him that he’ll find another way, knowing the full risks of what could happen. But, Billy doesn’t see any other choice.
Following the example of Grace making the tough choice, Billy recruits Anti-Trini and Kiya to his cause. He tricks Kendall into giving him her Energem so that she can’t fight back while he incapacitates Phantom Ranger. With the power of the Purple Energem charging his Power Lance, he states again that there is no other way and destroys the Power Eggs.
And, once again, the Grid is shattered.
Way to go, Kendall! This is why we don’t mention your finale. Because crap like this happens!
Ending Thoughts
We have unlocked Dark Billy.
Coming off the small break that was MMPR #120, which doesn’t even get a mention here with regards to Anti-Kim or anything else, which is confusing, we bring all focus to the real main character of this arc, Billy.
Because yes, though we see so many Rangers and storylines collide in this arc, Billy is the central focus. Like with how Tommy’s death in the original Shattered Grid changed everything for Kim, so did Grace’s death for Billy. This is the first time Billy lost someone so close to him. He’s spiraling, he can’t sleep. And, in such a critical time, all he can do now is throw himself at his work. He’s the one smart enough to support his team for so long, but he knows he has limits. He used to be able to trust Grace, but now it feels like he’s losing so much more that he’s not able to trust in the hope the others have. It’s in line with his history to search for a solution on his own, to solve the problem. We’ve seen it before when he re-powered the Dragon coin before and we’ve always trusted him before when it came to solutions. And, it’s such an excellent decision to have Kendall in the story here, integrating her series’ finale with Billy’s decision to shatter the Grid. Billy interprets her lesson into something else, another solution that she didn’t think of, and believes in himself enough that this is the only way for them all to survive, destroying it all to rebuild later.
The artwork is such a strong complement to the story as well. Even with every page being full of color and life, every panel with Billy just shows how tired he is. You feel the exhaustion from every panel so much so that he looks like a different person. When it all leads up to that last panel where Billy is pointing his weapon at Kendall, it’s such a chilling experience that conveys the desperation coming from our ‘hero’.
MMPR #121 shatters the Grid once again as we all must trust the solution from the boy trying to keep everything together.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Looking back at Mighty Morphin’ #21, when Kim learned about Shattered Grid, she was supposed to tell Billy about the details later, but I guess it never really happened. Not sure if I can be too mad about that…
- Also, Kendall, this really wasn’t a good look for you. I know for a fact that you could summon your Energem from afar. That means you could have done that and at least morphed to fight Billy before he got a shot off. Just sayin’!
- Man, between this and Once and Always, Billy is slowly going into shady territory, maybe Andros-level.
- “Alt-world Trini”? Eh, I still prefer Anti-Trini.
- Another thing about the artwork? It does such a good job recapturing the original style of Shattered Grid when that recap happens.
